


The Kids from Yesterday

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: 1000 Lives [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Comedy, Crack Treated Seriously, Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Immortality, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC, POV Hades (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, Post-Canon, The Final World (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29615979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Follow-up to "1000 Lives" story.A century after the Keyblade War, Hades visits the castle of the Goddess of Death to discuss an issue—only to discover that there has been a significant and surprising shift in administration.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: 1000 Lives [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175690
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	The Kids from Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't yet read the "1000 Lives" story and want to, be aware that this takes place afterwards and has MAJOR SPOILERS.
> 
> Someone commented that they'd be interested in seeing a follow-up, and that put the idea in my head as to how others might react to the events of the ending. For some reason I love writing Hades, so here's how he learned of the events of the story's conclusion, along with what the kids have been doing since.
> 
> Title, like the chapters in the main story, is an MCR song, lyrics barely related (it just made a good title and I wanted to continue the theme of using their songs as titles).

Hades sighed as he stood in front of the spindly black castle of the Goddess of Death, located in the night-time version of the Final World, a plane separate from that of the mortal realms. He hadn’t needed to see her in a few millennia (after all, he managed his Underworld just fine, and she was extremely busy managing all the worlds without their own place as well as the stupid keyblade-wielders who were always trying to cheat death regardless of era), but now it had become necessary… why was she so opposed to any type of long-distance communications, whether it be simple letters, telephones, magical mirrors, or anything else? But no, Hades had to make a trip to her castle to talk with her—not even summoning a reaper to use as a messenger would suffice (Hades had learned that the hard way). Even then, half the time she’d be too busy, and insist an appointment be made, meaning Hades would have to travel all the way home and then return at a later date!! So. Freaking. Annoying.

Hades took a deep breath, then he stopped in front of the foreboding dark door and knocked thrice with the knocker, which was in the shape of a… stylized heart? That was new; perhaps the Goddess had redorated, as Hades was certain that last time it had been an incredibly ugly horned oni. To use a heart for a Castle of Death was an odd choice though, especially for her.

After a few minutes, by which Hades was impatiently tapping his foot and had his arms crossed, two reapers slipped out before quickly closing the door behind them, one a boy with spiky blonde hair and the other a girl with short black hair. More notable though was the fact that they were clearly kids—well, teens, but close enough (when you’ve lived for millennia, basically any human younger than fifty looks the same). That was interesting, as the Goddess typically did not take children as reapers, as once you were one you stopped aging—mentally as well as physically. Maybe the kids had been dying, or decided to make a demon deal, although why two kids would make a demon deal was unknown to Hades. Probably to save a parent or something silly like that. Either way, they were definitely not mortals anymore, given the black wings, lancelate tails, and small horns.

“What do you want?” the blonde kid said as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the door. He seemed vaguely familiar.

“Roxas! Don’t be rude!” the noirette chided.

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Come on, Xion, it’s Hades; being rude to him is practically a requirement.”

Hades raised an eyebrow. “Pretty bold of you to assume that, kid,” he said, trying to think of where they’d met before. The two definitely felt familiar, and seemed to know him, but honestly so many humans crossed paths with Hades that he rarely bothered to remember people unless they were huge pains-in-the-asses like a certain brunette keyblade-wielder, duck, and dog. Thank the Goddess mortals didn’t live very long, meaning those three would be long dead by now.

The door opened again and out walked a kid that looked identical to Roxas. Ah, they must be twins; that definitely meant they’d tried to revive a family member, if the pattern held. Come to think of it, the girl looked like she could be related to them, too.

The kid looked surprised. “Huh. We really do actually have a guest,” he commented to himself, then crossed his arms too and said louder, just as rude as his brother, “What the fuck do you want, Hades?”

“Excuse me?” Hades asked, other eyebrow raising as well. He lowered them, then sighed. “Okay, we have to address something here: it looks like you three know me but I don’t know you; sorry, but there’s billions of humans and you all look the same. I may look impressive enough for anyone to remember meeting, but you humans—well, former-humans in your case—tend to all look the same. Very rarely do I actually remember one. So, remind me, where did we meet and what’s the new kid’s name?”

“We don’t need to introduce ourselves,” the second blonde kid snapped. “Just tell us why you’re here, or go away.”

“Ventus, be nice,” Xion chided, just like she had with the other brother earlier.

Ventus waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m here to see the Goddess, obviously,” Hades said, just as rudely. “Now, take me to her,” he demanded.

“Oooh, sorry, no can do!” Xion told him.

“And why not? I did not come all the way here to be denied an audience!” Hades growled, his fire-hair flaring up in a burst of angry red.

“Well, she’s dead,” Xion informed Hades blunty.

Hades froze, stunned. “What?” he said intelligently. Someone had actually managed to kill the Goddess and take her place? That hadn’t happened since the bronze age, when that Goddess had taken power after seducing the previous God! Had she fallen for her own trick? Hades couldn’t see how she’d let anyone close to her otherwise.

“She’s dead,” the girl repeated. “There’s a new God of Death now.”

Hades suddenly had a foreboding feeling about this. “When?” he wondered.

“Oh, about a century ago,” Xion said chipperly. “It seems you missed a lot!”

“That’s all? Huh.” A century wasn’t that long at all when one had lived for millennia; no wonder Hades hadn’t heard anything yet. He thought back to that time period; humans had been in some sort of inter-world war, right? Figures it’d escalate this far. But, wait… hadn’t most of the main fighters been kids? Kids like these… including a certain brunette who was known to go any length to save his friends… no. No, no, no no no. There was no possible way. Definitely not.

The door opened again, and out walked a short-haired red-headed girl, the same height and original-age as the others. This one Hades actually recognized—she was the girl a certain witch had kidnapped, a Princess of Light… well, clearly not a Princess anymore, nor Light. Not with those clear demon features. And whenever she was around, one could be assured that the brunette Hades hated would be, too. At least, that had been the case a century ago. Well, maybe the two had a falling out, and the kid wouldn’t be around this time. Maybe he’d stayed mortal and died. He better have; Hades really did not want to see that kid!

“I was sent to see what’s taking so long,” Kairi explained. 

“That’s what I want to know too!” Hades proclaimed. “All I came here to do was see the Goddess—or I guess, God now, whoever that is. And yes, it’s urgent business , so don’t you dare say I have to make an appointment or something!”

“Then why didn’t you send a letter?” Xion wondered. “Or a magical item message, or e-mail, or summoned a reaper courrier or something? Olympus has a few of our reapers stationed there.”

Hades blinked. “What? The new God is okay with that? Ugh! Why did no one inform me of this?!” he declared angrily. “I wouldn’t have had to come all the way out here like she always demanded… Oy vey!”

Kairi shrugged. “Sorry. We didn’t think of doing that… guess we should, huh? Anyway, you’re here already, might as well come in.” She opened the door.

“I’ll go tell him,” Xion said, rushing inside ahead of them.

Hades stepped into the entryway and looked around in disbelief. The castle appeared to be completely remodeled: despite the gloomy exterior, the inside was light. The walls of the entranceway were a vivid cyan, and the floor was covered in a grass-green carpet. The ceiling, also cyan, had a puffy white cloud pattern and a large round ceiling light that clearly was intended to resemble a sun. The walls were adorned in paintings, appearing hand-drawn, of various scenery. Clearly the foyer was meant to represent daytime despite being in a world of eternal night. It was also much smaller than the grandiose entryway the previous Goddess had. It wasn’t the side of a football field or banquet hall, rather closer to the lobby of a small hotel in layout. There were even elevators off to one side! There was no reception desk, but there was a small pedestal next to the door with a visitor log and some couches.

“This is different,” Hades commented as Kairi directed him to sign the book.

“Yeah, Naminé wanted to remodel things; the gothic aesthetic wasn’t working too well for us,” Xion explained. “Eternal night is cool and all, but you do start to miss daylight.”

“But, can’t you travel?” Hades asked, somewhat confused. “You’re reapers; isn’t going places and guiding people when they die part of the job?

“Technically, yeah,” Roxas—or was it Ventus?—answered. “But there’s plenty of reapers who can do that. We’re his friends; we get to chill and do what we want.”

“Plus, someone’s gotta do the administrative stuff, right?” Kairi further explained.

“Huh. Interesting,” Hades commented, wondering why they seemed so obtuse about who specifically the God of Death was. Hades again had a foreboding feeling. The guy seemed a whole lot more lax than the previous Goddess, who had practically been a slave-driver; was the new God a teenager, too? Was it someone Hades knew? Was it—No. No, it definitely couldn’t be. Hades refused to even think of the possibility.

The group of teens led Hades into the elevator, taking it up a few floors before exiting into what appeared to be a maze of canary-yellow corridors lined with red doors and more framed pictures along the walls, this time crayon drawings of what appeared to be people.

“Each floor is a different color and drawing scheme,” Kairi explained, noting the startled look Hades had tried to hide. She was a very perceptive girl.

Moments later, the group reached a door like all the others, opening it to reveal… a game room?

Three boys and a girl were on a couch, backs to the door. The girl had long blonde hair, one boy had long silver hair in a braid and was taller than the other kids (who had inexplicably all been the same exact height), another had long spiky red hair and was actually older in original-age for once and incredibly tall, and the other was a boy with spiky brown hair, whom the silverette had an arm around and was passionately making out with while the other two were playing some sort of racing game on a gigantic screen which they paused as the others entered the room. They all turned, the brunette shrugging away from the silverette to put his arms crossed on the back of the couch with his chin on them, looking curiously at Hades. Hades recognized him immediately: yup, the kid he despised was a reaper, too.

“Hey, what’s up, Hades?” Sora asked casually. Strangely, his reaper features weren’t manifested, although Hades could definitely sense demonic darkness from the kid.

“I’m here to see the new God of Death,” Hades said, annoyed that the kids had not taken him to the guy after all. “Where is he?”

Sora grinned, showing fangs. Hades recalled the kid’s penchant for drama… was that why he hadn’t manifested his wings yet? Oh no. No, not possible. 

“Well?” Hades prodded. “Where’s the God?”

“You’re looking at him,” Sora said, holding back laughter.

Hades rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, very funny,” he said, assuming it was a joke. It must be; there was no way it wasn’t. “Now stop stalling.”

“But I’m not joking,” Sora said, grinning again. Then, he manifested his demon features: the tail was the same as the others, but the horns were drastically elongated, and instead of two black wings the kid had six.

“Shit,” Hades swore. His fears had been confirmed: Sora was indeed the God of Death. Hades began rambling, paying no heed to his word choice and punctuated with arm movements and flaming hair. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! No, no, there’s no fucking way! YOU, the God of Death?! I must be dreaming. Yeah, this must be a nightmare, there’s no fucking way. How? How does a twink like you conquer the Goddess of Death? Serious, this is so whack. Like, what? This is fucking shit. No. I refuse to be the subordinate of some kid barely over a century old! This is so fucking stupid!” Hades paused to catch his breath and calm his raging fire-hair, which had nearly shot to the ceiling.

“You finished?” Sora said flatly, raising an eyebrow. He was much calmer than Hades remembered, showing no reaction to Hades’s rant.

“...Yeah, I’m finished,” Hades said tersely, narrowing his eyes at Sora. “Finished with this whole subordinate-to-another God thing! If it were anyone else, fine, but you? No. Not doing it.”

Sora let out a laugh. “Yeah, only you don’t really have a choice in the matter, do you?” He seemed much more confident and cocky than Hades recalled, too.

Hades frowned and his nostrils flared. Kid was right; he had no choice. He was bound by magic too ancient to try to touch, and the God of Death had (Hades was reluctant to admit) abilities far greater than a typical God like Hades. Plus, the council of Gods at Olympus would never approve of Hades going rogue.

“So, what are you here for?” the silverette—Riku, Hades recalled; he could never forget that kid, either—asked.

“It’s an emergency, right?” the blonde girl asked gently. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here, because you hated visiting the Goddess, and presumably now you like interacting with the new God even less.”

“How do you know that?” Hades demanded. Were they collecting intel on him?

“Oh, Naminé just knows things about people she meets,” the redheaded man—the only person whose name Hades did not know now—explained. “Oh, also, I’m Lea, by the way, if you didn’t get it memorized the first time.” Apparently he also had met Hades, which did make sense if all the others had too.

“Right…” Hades said, still having trouble believing this wasn’t a dream. 

“So, why are you here?” Sora asked, seeming bored. “If it’s about that rogue reaper, yeah, we know about him. We’re just gonna let him have his fun for now, get it out of his system; Naminé says he’s just on a rebellious streak, shouldn’t last more than a decade or so.”

Hades blinked, processing that. Rogue reaper? “Uh, no, that’s not why I’m here,” Hades clarified less-than-eloquently. “I’m here because there are a multitude of souls missing from the Underworld, and there have been reports of a creature eating them.”

Sora sighed, then turned to one of the blonde boys. “Ventus, don’t tell me you let one of the Great Old Ones out again,” he said. “I told you, they’re not pets to play with.”

“No!” Ventus said a bit too quickly, then at Sora’s Look added, “Okay, I was teasing Cthulhu some, but I swear I didn’t let him escape! Besides, he doesn’t eat souls, just destroys stuff like some sort of squiddy Godzilla.”

“Okay… hmm.” Sora looked at Roxas. “What about the Hellhounds? None of them escaped either, right?”

“Of course not!” Roxas asserted, sounding offended. “Firstly, they are perfectly obedient to me, and secondly, they help catch people who are running, then bring their souls back to where they belong; they do not eat them!”

“Hmm. Must be something from a different world, then,” Sora concluded. 

“Which means it falls to you to investigate,” Hades pointed out tersely. “If it’s a cross-worlds thing.”

Sora waved a hand. “Fine, I’ll send some reapers out to help investigate,” he decided. “Now, is that all? We were in the middle of something.”

Hades crossed his arms. “I would appreciate it if you deployed them immediately rather than waiting until you’ve finished making out,” he said dryly, now immensely annoyed. This inexperienced kid was the current incarnation of Death itself?

“Ugh, fine. Kairi,” Sora said, turning to the redheaded girl, “You go with Xion and assign some reapers to go help Hades figure things out.” At Hades’s questioning look as the two girls hurried out the door, Sora explained, “Xion’s in charge of coordinating the reapers and Kairi’s in charge of communications.”

“Interesting,” Hades commented. So, there was a hierarchy, which was another thing that differed from the previous Goddess. She had pretty much done everything herself, not trusting even the most loyal reapers with anything but basic tasks. No wonder the reapers stationed around Hades’ world had been much happier lately than Hades had ever recalled—they had a leader that apparently was not a mistrustful narcissist for once. “So, how’d you land this gig?” Hades asked casually, hoping his high curiosity wasn’t noted. “You never said. In fact, I’m pretty sure no one but your reapers even know management has changed. Might want to let them know.”

“Oh, right,” Sora mused. “I forgot about that part.”

“Seriously? It’s been a century,” Hades pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

Sora shrugged. “Well, everyone seems to be running their own domains pretty well. You’re the first to actually try to contact me. Plus I’m kinda winging it here; I was given absolutely no information on how to do this job at all, you know. She didn't have any manuals.”

“Well, yeah; don’t need a manual when you’ve been at the job for millennia… So you honestly have no idea what you’re supposed to be doing at all?” Hades clarified.

“Well, yeah, mostly. Some of the reapers did explain some stuff to me, but most things were kept secret from even them. She was extremely guarded. For example, we didn’t even know there was an aquarium in the basement until a few months ago! Thankfully they were all undead fish things in there, so they hadn’t needed food. Weird how they were locked in a super secure hidden room though…”

Hades froze. “Wait, WHAT?!”

“What?”

“Please tell me they’re still there,” Hades asked.

When Sora just scrunched his brow in confusion, Riku asked, “Why? Is there a problem?”

“Oy vey! Yes—if those are what I think they are, and if they have escaped, they’re the entire cause of the souls vanishing!”

“Oh. Ummmm… Roxas, go check on that,” Sora ordered.

“And go in that creepy basement?!” Roxas proclaimed. “Yeah, no thanks.”

Lea laughed. “Aww, Roxy, don’t tell me you’re scared!”

The blonde crossed his arms. “No! I’m not scared!”

“It’s okay, I’ll go with you,” Lea said before lithely flipping over the back of the couch.

“Fine,” Roxas huffed, following the redhead out the door. Hades again was stricken by the fact that the God of Death and his entire administration were basically kids.

“You know, you can go now,” Sora told Hades, sounding bored again—obviously his mind was on making out with his boyfriend, rather than on more important matters.

“Right… But before I do,” Hades said, “Is there anything else around here like the fish that you aren’t sure what they are?” Hades truly hoped not.

“Hmm? Uh, I guess, maybe?” Sora said. “But I’m sure we’ll be more or less able to figure everything out, eventually.” Oof. That did not sound like the kid had a handle on things at all.

“I think what Hades is actually trying to ask is if you need an advisor who is more knowledgeable about death-related things,” Naminé suggested.

“Well, no, I wasn’t,” Hades quickly corrected. “Although it sure looks like you do need one, so if you’re offering…” Wait. What was Hades doing? Was he seriously offering to advise these kids? Well, someone had to, Hades supposed, if they were going to be letting soul-eating fish out and playing with Gods older than time itself—had that kid seriously been teasing Cthulhu?

Riku scoffed. “Last time I worked with you didn’t end too well for either of us,” he said coolly. 

“Yeah but last time Sora wasn’t Hades’s boss,” Ventus pointed out.

“Ugh, don’t remind me of that,” Hades groaned. “I can’t believe a kid is basically in charge of the universe.”

“The universe?” Sora asked, perking up slightly and looking curious. “Thought I was just in charge of death-related things.”

“Well, yeah, technically, but think about it. Mortals will go to any length to circumvent death, especially those in power; it’s ripe for manipulation. Control Death, control everything.”

“Ooooh. I never thought about it like that,” Sora mused, a sparkle in his eyes. Great; Hades had essentially given the kid more power.

Naminé thankfully interrupted, bringing them back on topic, probably catching onto Sora’s train of thought as she seemed to do with everyone’s. “I truly do think bringing him on as a temporary advisor would be the best course of action, at least until we’ve figured out how everything works. We don’t even know how to contact the majority of Gods of individual worlds like Hades, as evidenced by his appearance, or even the number of worlds that have such.”

“I still don’t understand how you still don’t know so much after over a century,” Hades said drily. “What, have you been sitting around playing games and making out with your boyfriend most of the time or something?”

Sora opened his mouth as though to protest the accusation, then closed it again. “Maybe,” he muttered, clearly trying to hide a blush. Of course; they were basically teenagers. Hades should have expected that.

“Well, Sora?” Naminé prodded. “What do you think of that idea?”

Sora sighed. “Fine. Hades, you’re my advisor now,” he stated, as though it were already fact—which Hades supposed it was, as Sora was now his boss, of all the unfathomable things to happen. “And just until we’ve figured everything out.”

Hades raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Don’t I get a choice in this, kid?”

“No,” Sora said simply. Hades had had a feeling that would be the answer—after all, again, to Hades’s continued incredulity, he technically was the kid’s subordinate, somehow, thus had to comply regardless of how reluctant he was.

Hades sighed. “Fine. But I’m not gonna like it! And you gotta give me some time to instruct my daughter on managing the Underworld, because I am not leaving it a free-for-all while I’m gone!”

“That’s fair,” Riku noted, then his face morphed into a stunned look. “Wait. You have a daughter?!”

Hades rolled his eyes. “Well, duh. You don’t live for multiple millennia without accumulating some accidental offspring.” Including, apparently, eight more of them as of a minute prior—Hades had a feeling he’d end up doing more than just advising the group of teens on death-related matters.

And thus, that is how Hades, Lord of the Underworld, became the advisor and pseudo-father of Sora, God of Death, and his seven comrades.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I'm not sure if I'll be writing more shorts related to this, but it's possible, so I'm leaving the series open (If I do though, it won't be for a while, as I really need to focus on my novel-length WIPs and vampire series right now). 
> 
> If anyone has any ideas of what more can be done, I'm open for suggestions! It doesn't have to be after the main story, either; all ideas are welcome!


End file.
